Dropshipping on eBay
June 29th, 2007 — Christoph C. CemperNew On-Line Business Opportunities On eBay.
Introduction.
It’s hard to imagine anyone with access to the internet that isn’t familiar with eBay. To many internet users eBay is a fun way of purchasing an item through bidding in an auction or, if available, using the buy it now option. The number of “buy it now” options seems to increase every time you visit eBay and it’s not the familiar High Street store names behind the “buy it now” options. The reason for this is simple, more and more people are realising that there’s a great new online business opportunity on eBay for them.
Some eBay basics.
Does the idea of moving from being an online buyer to being an online seller appeal to you? If it does you should first make sure you understand the basics of selling on eBay. You can then move on to being a PowerSeller on eBay and can then consider establishing your own store on eBay. However, your fact finding shouldn’t stop there. If you really want to maximise your potential and profitwith your new online business you really should consider incorporating a process called dropship selling.
Dropshipping.
You may already be familiar with the industrial term “just in time delivery” or the commerce term of “direct dispatch”. The term “dropshipping” is the modern e-commerce equivalent of those two terms. In essence it is a system whereby you sell merchandise without actually having it in stock. Here’s how it works:-
- You have a supplier for the merchandise you want to sell.
- You agree a price you will buy at from your supplier.
- You determine the price you want to sell the merchandise at.
- A customer pays you that price for the merchandise.
- You pay your supplier the price you agreed with them and send them your customer’s details.
- The supplier delivers the goods to your customer.
- The difference between what your customer paid you and you paid your supplier – is your profit.
Preparing for your new online business opportunity on eBay.
Of course you still need to have products and merchandise that people want to buy. So it always pays to do some research as to what already sells well on eBay, both in terms of volume and potential profit. You need to be sure that you’re comfortable selling the merchandise/product. It might be that you’re a totally committed 100% entrepreneur and are comfortable selling anything. If not, select products and merchandise that you are already knowledgeable about, things that you are enthusiastic about or even, of course, things that meet your ethical standards. Remember, to make your new online business opportunity on eBay a success – you must be 100% committed to it.
Developing your new online business with an affiliate website.
Dropshipping through eBay is a great way to start your new business online and you can start off just using the facilities already provided within eBay. However, there’s a lot of competition on eBay to sell things and you need to ensure that your online business is the one people want to use and that your online business will continue to develop. One obvious development to make is to create your own “dropship” selling website. This will help you establish better relationships with your customers, encourage customers to return to you and generally enhance your profile as an online seller. Having a website is not like in the film “Field of dreams”, just building a website does not mean people will visit it. Not only do you need to get people visiting it but you need to make sure that it is working to maximum effect for you. It can time to learn the programming and website development skills needed for this. However, for just a few dollars there are companies that can very quickly help you with this. One excellent way to easily develop your online business is with an affiliate website, whereby you get immediate access to a great selection of easy to use resources.


